


Immune

by i_am_zan



Series: A DGM Fanworks Initiative 2K17 (run by Kitty Bandit)/from tumblr [1]
Category: D.Gray-man
Genre: Gen, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Introspection, Musings during incarceration, What Was I Thinking?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-20
Updated: 2017-06-20
Packaged: 2018-11-16 09:15:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 822
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11250123
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/i_am_zan/pseuds/i_am_zan
Summary: Day 1: D. Gray-man Fanworks Initiative 2K17: Exorcist vs Noah, Dark vs Light, Good vs Evil.Bookman has plenty of time to think whilst in captivity.





	Immune

**Author's Note:**

> "we will not stand to prate;  
> Talkers are no good doers: be assured  
> We come to use our hands and not our tongues." - First murderer, Richard III, William Shakespeare

This is a war. An ongoing conflict raging for seven millennia. It came as no surprise to Bookman (and much later his heir, when Lavi gives it grave consideration) that at some point, someone will say "ENOUGH!" That there would be folk from both sides of the fence to seek a truce. For Bookman no mere onlooker and being involved means forfeiting his codes and tenets, and he stepped up to the plate years ago when asked. But he’s good at putting on a show, putting up a front, otherwise how could he have taught the boy. The man his pupil is becoming is a source of pride, and he hopes that they come through this and he can come clean at some point, and if he croaks it before the youngster, he likes to think that the boy knows it anyway. 

 

The Bookmen have always been about neutrality but there needs to be balance, there can be no light without shadow, this is physics pure and simple. No one is wholly good nor evil. Studying events from every angle gives him(them) an insight to the rudimentary ideas that people naturally forget because they cannot see the wood for the trees. Lvelllier might be on the side of right, but Bookman reckons he just might be pure evil, with the end game justifying his every reprehensible move. By the same token Road, Bookman is certain is the reason many of them are still alive. After the Great Divide, and events between the 14th and the Earl – even if most of her beloved family died in the aftermath, and it took a good number of years for the full line up to awaken – the 14th is still family, and for whatever reason Cross Marian and himself are still around because of it. Of course, with Road it can also be pure capriciousness. 

 

Their captors are not mindful with the snippets of information that come across between the questioning and the torture (which he is not immune to, even if it does look like he is made of stone. Acting is part of Bookman’s repertoire after all. For was it not Shakespeare who wrote “, we will not stand to prate; Talkers are no good doers: be assured”. The boy is learned in the art of dramaturgy and both are not without skill). 

 

The Noah discourse among themselves and the nuggets of information Bookman gleans from those in between times make for very interesting recording indeed. Not least of which is the Earl’s odd behaviour concerning Walker, the 14th and the surprise (or not) intervention of Apocryphos. There is also mention that Road is also somehow indisposed. There was an ambush the Black Order headquarters and the exorcists barely made it out with their lives, but given the disadvantages - being seriously outnumbered by upper level Akuma, Noah and of course the Noah had ‘inside’ help from the Thirds. Anyone else might have considered them turncoats, but Bookman considers this as expected because they are enhanced by dark matter and not true innocence wielders, hence merely going back to their true natures. Which brings him to the conundrum that is Allen Walker - unlike the Thirds - IS innocence wielder and a Noah to boot. Therein lies the true war, Exorcist versus Noah, and the Light versus the Dark. The other question that lies within for Walker to find out for himself is it truly just a battle of good versus evil – for that lies with what the Exorcist Allen Walker wants and the Noah inside desires. Bookman recalls Walker asserting his vow over and again that he fights both for the souls within Akuma and humanity - and the old man wonders if the two needs can ever be reconciled to one end. 

 

It is the last time either are conscious for any talk and thankfully that Noah called Wisely was not around then otherwise he would have been privy to the connection. Just as he is cautioning his charge to keep his eye and ears open, because it seems that all the players are ready and waiting in the wings. Just as Junior manages a last outburst, “Don’t say anything at all!”, and Sheryl blasts the boy with a burst of dark explosive energy. History begins to move.

And then nothing – and for a long while it seems like he floats in nothingness. (Road’s doing Bookman wonders, and wonders if these thoughts are his, and wonders at his lucidity, if it is real at all.) It seems that he has been eventually separated from his apprentice. Just like thirty-five years ago (not entirely a repeat, he is fervently hoping, for that will not do at all), he is coming to, and he senses he is not alone. Who he sees is (not) who he thought he was ever going to see again. It really does feel like history might be repeating itself (again after all).

"~"~"~"

FIN

**Author's Note:**

> "he lied in every word,  
> That hoary cripple, with malicious eye  
> Askance to watch the working of his lie  
> On mine, and mouth scarce able to afford  
> Suppression of the glee, that purs’d and scor’d  
> Its edge, at one more victim gain’d thereby" - Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came, Robert Browning
> 
> Once again I thank you for stopping by. - Have a great week ahead - Zan


End file.
